William Claxton
William Claxton (born October 12, 1927 in Pasadena , California , † October 11, 2008 in Los Angeles ) was an American photographer. With impressive photo portraits of jazz musicians, he made jazz more popular.
Life
As a psychology student at UCLA in Los Angeles, Claxton was already roaming jazz clubs with his camera. In 1952 he met Richard Bock at " The Haig " in Los Angeles while recording the Gerry Mulligan Quartet for his newly founded Pacific Jazz label and was hired by him as a photographer for the label's album covers. These recordings made him famous. Especially the portraits of the young Chet Baker later had a style-forming effect. Claxton also worked as a fashion photographer and was the preferred photographer of Steve McQueen in the 1960s , whom he met in 1962 while filming "Love with the proper Stranger". In 1959/1960 he traveled with Joachim-Ernst Berendt through the USA to learn about jazz musicians and street scenes a. a. photographed in New Orleans , Kansas City , New York , St. Louis , Chicago , Los Angeles and San Francisco , from which the photo book "Jazzlife" was born. At that time, the book had a print run of almost 2 million copies and is now a coveted collector's item.
His recordings have appeared in magazines such as Life , Paris Match and Vogue .
Claxton was married to ex-mannequin Peggy Moffitt from 1960 . Together with her he worked repeatedly for the designer Rudi Gernreich . Their son Christopher was born in 1973. The family lived in Beverly Hills .
In 1956 Shorty Rogers dedicated his composition “Clickin with Clax” to him and Al Cohn his “Sound Claxton”.
Claxton died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital just before his 81st birthday, leaving behind his wife Peggy Moffitt, son Christopher, and sister Colleen Lewis.
Works
- Jazz West Coast . Pacific Jazz 1955; Bijitsu Shuppan-Sha, Tokyo 1993; Illustrated book
- with Joachim-Ernst Berendt: Jazzlife. Burda Printing and Publishing, Offenburg 1961; extended English edition
- Jazz. Foreword by Leonard Feather . Edition Stemmle 1996, ISBN 0811813517
- Young Chet - a photographic memory of legendary Jazzman Chet Baker. Schirmer Mosel, Munich 1993, new edition 2006, ISBN 3888147980
- Claxography - The Art of Jazz Photography. Nieswand Verlag, Kiel 1995, ISBN 3926048670 (awarded as “one of the most beautiful German books” by the Book Art Foundation )
- Laugh-Portraits of the Greatest Comedians and the stories they tell each other. William Morrow, New York 1999
- Jazz lakes. Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3822878685 (foreword by Don Heckman)
- Jazz postcards. Benedikt Taschen Verlag 1998
- Photographic memory. Powerhouse Books 2002, ISBN 1576870855 , (photos of actors like Dennis Hopper and other celebrities like Truman Capote , Salvador Dalí )
- Jazz life. A Journey Across America. Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3822849707 (including photos by Duke Ellington , Miles Davis , Charlie Parker , Dave Brubeck , Ella Fitzgerald , Charles Mingus )
- Steve McQueen. Taschen Verlag , Cologne 2005, ISBN 3822831174
Quote
"Most of the jazz photography before me showed sweaty musicians with shiny faces in dark, smoky little bars. That was jazz to most people. But being on the West Coast, I wanted to bring out the fact that musicians were living in a very health conscious environment. So I purposely put them on the beach or in the mountains or on the road in their convertibles. "
(Translation: Much of the jazz photography before me showed sweaty musicians with shiny faces in dark, smoky little bars. That was jazz for most people. But on the West Coast, I wanted to emphasize the fact that musicians were in very healthy surroundings So I consciously put them on the beach or in the mountains or on the street in their convertibles. )
Movies
- Jazz Seen , documentary, Germany, USA, 2001, director: Julian Benedikt , reviews:
- Jazz for the eyes. The photos of William Claxton. TV feature, Germany, 2005, approx. 7 min., Production: ZDF , aspekte , broadcast: September 23, 2005, summary of the ZDF
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Garrett White: "William Claxton - Photographic Memory"
- Jazz lakes in the Internet Movie Database (English)
-
“Do what you want with me” , Tagesspiegel , October 25, 2005, Interview
“Jazz is intelligence without education: The photographer William Claxton is bringing out his legendary book“ Jazzlife ”again."
Obituaries
- “Williams Claxton gave jazz its faces” , Die Welt , October 13, 2008
- “William Claxton dies at 80; photographer helped make famous Chet Baker " , Los Angeles Times , October 13, 2008 with photo gallery
- "William Claxton, Photographer, Is Dead at 80" , New York Times , October 14, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jonathan S. Paul: A Claxton and Moffitt Original . In: New York Times , December 12, 2007.
- ↑ Veronica Schmidt: Photographer William Claxton dies . In: The Times , October 13, 2008.
- ↑ Kai Müller: The Invisible Third . In: Tagesspiegel , April 26, 2002.
- ↑ Change of look . In: Tagesspiegel , April 25, 2002.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Claxton, William |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American photographer |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 12, 1927 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Pasadena , California |
DATE OF DEATH | October 11, 2008 |
Place of death | los Angeles |